GDELTWashington D.C.
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Dan Rather says Secret Service officers blocked reporters from MS NOW, and Politico from entering the White House on Thursday morning. The administration later restored their access after Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to act immediately and reverse the exclusion.
The disruption lasted from the previous Saturday, when Donald Trump barred the three outlets, until later Thursday, when the reporters were let back in. Kelly’s temporary restraining order remains in place for 14 days while the legal challenge continues.
Timothy Kelly order
Kelly ordered the White House the previous night to restore access after the outlets sued over the ban. He found they were likely to prevail on a Fifth Amendment due process argument and said existing D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rulings require advance notice and a chance to respond before journalists’ credentials are revoked.
The judge did not resolve the broader fight over press rights. He focused instead on the process used to revoke access, which turned the case on notice and response rather than on the broader First Amendment claim raised by the outlets.
Donald Trump and the ban
Trump said he was barring the three outlets because of what he described as a pattern of dishonest reporting about him and his administration. The outlets argued they were being punished specifically for their coverage, putting the dispute squarely on whether the revocation was retaliation or a credentialing decision.
Kelly expressed skepticism that national security concerns drove the revocations, a point that narrowed the administration’s justification as the case moved forward. For now, the reporters are back inside the White House, and the restraint on the ban stays in place for 14 days while the challenge continues.
Open article →GDELTWashington D.C.
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CNN and MS NOW were denied entry to cover a state dinner at the White House Thursday night despite a federal judge ordering that their access be restored.
President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a state dinner at the White House on Thursday night. When reporters from the outlets attempted to cover arrivals at the event, officials from the Trump administration told them they were not allowed to do so.
MS NOW’s White House Reporter Laura Barrón-López reported live from the White House grounds, saying that when she attempted to attend the greeting ceremony they were denied. The event was one that she characterized as “pretty typical” for press to be in attendance for.
She added that they had submitted for credentials before the deadline the previous night, but the “handler” apologized and did not let them in. The reporter was told to reach out to the White House communications director Steven Cheung.
Barrón-López added that she was approved for a credential for an event with the president at the National Archives Museum, but it would not take place at the White House.
Barrón-López said that a correspondent and a producer from CNN were also barred from the event.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett confirmed this news on her show “OutFront” Thursday night.
“CNN denied access moments ago to cover the guest arrivals of President Trump’s state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, blocked after a judge shot down Trump’s ban to keep CNN, Politico and MS NOW out of the White House grounds,” she reported.
The Trump administration barred Politico, CNN and MS NOW from entering the White House grounds since Saturday, following a directive from the president Friday to cancel their access because he took issue with their reporting.
In response to the ban and in support of CNN, the press pool boycotted coverage of the president. The press pool includes a rotating group of the five major news networks: ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News.
Earlier Thursday U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the Trump administration to restore the press credentials to the aforementioned outlets. The judge granted a temporary restraining order, which the three outlets had requested as part of their join lawsuit challenging the president.
Kelly noted that the Trump administration provided no support for its assertion that any of the disputed stories contained classified information or damaged national security. He also said that some of the reporting the president took issue with was months or years old.
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CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters regain entry to White House
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CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters regain entry to White House
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CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters have now been allowed back at the White House after a judge blocked President Trump’s ban. All three outlets had been turned away earlier in the day despite a judge’s order that the White House temporarily reinstate their access.Sept. 24, 2026
Open article →GDELTNew York
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New York: A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s ban of three news outlets from the White House grounds, ordering early Thursday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico must have their access restored.
It’s the latest development in an escalating showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes. Trump announced he was banning the outlets Friday, assailing what he called “fake news,” and later arguing that their reporting was a risk to national security. The outlets argued the ban was a blatant First Amendment violation because it singled them out for the content of their coverage.
In an order, US District Judge Timothy Kelly said the media outlets had met the legal thresholds to obtain a temporary restraining order, in effect for 14 days. He said they were likely to succeed in showing that their White House press passes were revoked without due process.
“This is a high bar, but Plaintiffs have met it,” he wrote.
The ruling hands the news outlets a reprieve in the escalating showdown between Trump and news organisations whose coverage he sees as negative. But the administration has repeatedly found ways to challenge coverage it dislikes.
Kelly said the government must have clear standards for conduct that would lead to revoking a press pass. He called the standard of objectionable reporting outlined in letters that the White House sent the outlets “so vague it hardly does the trick.”
Kelly — whom Trump nominated in 2017 and who ordered a CNN journalist’s access restored in a similar case in 2018 — heard arguments Wednesday. Temporary restraining orders are typically designed to preserve the status quo pending a closer review of the case by the court.
“This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law,” Theodore Boutrous Jr., attorney for the outlets, said in an emailed statement. “We greatly appreciate the court’s swift action.”
The White House did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting comment.
In an emergency hearing Wednesday, Kelly said his decision must be guided by prior rulings in comparable First Amendment cases, even if the government disagrees with them. His decision noted that the White House argued that previous cases cited had been wrongly decided.
“Maybe,” Kelly wrote, “but this Court is bound by D.C. Circuit precedent, full stop.”
Kelly also rejected the White House’s claim that revoking the press passes was necessary for national security, saying officials did little to back up that notion. “Nothing in the record … suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns,” he wrote.
“The Court is skeptical … that Defendants’ interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes.”
In arguments Wednesday, attorneys debated access to White House and any risk to national security
Boutrous argued about the urgent need for a change, saying there had been irreparable harm to the outlets at a time of momentous news events. “We’re at war. We have world leaders coming to Washington.”
Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik had reiterated the administration’s point that the president had the right to choose who gets into the White House.
“Access to the White House is a privilege, not a right,” Velchik said.
In arguing that Trump was not engaging in viewpoint discrimination, Velchik said the president had criticised other news organisations even more harshly — such as calling ABC “the worst” — but hadn’t banned them.
“The president should be able to take immediate action to protect national security,” Velchik told the court.
In response, Boutrous said, “Suddenly it’s a national security case,” arguing that the president brought up that point only after the lawsuit was filed.
Trump “keeps proving our point,” Boutrous said, describing how the president has consistently used negative coverage of him as justification for the ban.
The Trump administration outlined reporting incidents of each news outlet
In a filing Tuesday, administration lawyers detailed letters sent to each of the three news outlets that identified “a non-exhaustive list of reporting incidents, including those that have threatened national security and spread falsehoods.”
The “reporting incidents” cited included: CNN reporting on “top-secret’ construction details related to the East Wing bunker”; MS NOW reporting “on an alleged leak investigation”; and Politico publishing “a document detailing funding for the White House ballroom containing intricate descriptions of how the Secret Service would invest in security improvements.”
Further examples were given in individual letters. Politico’s letter detailed six reporting instances, including in June citing a “senior administration official … granted anonymity” predicting whether a preliminary deal would end the conflict with Iran.
That item appeared to reference a background briefing set up by the White House, where an official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House itself. Several other outlets also reported the official’s remarks.
Major networks refrained from covering Trump for the media pool
The ban prompted other media outlets to take action in solidarity. The five-network US network press pool — a rotating cast of news outlets that covers the president, and to which CNN belongs — suspended coverage of Trump events.
After the hearing Wednesday, the networks continued their ban on filming Trump coverage. At Joint Base Andrews, where the president formally welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping, journalists from Fox News, CBS and NBC were present but not shooting video.
Other television outlets whose crews were present, according to signs on their tripods and cameras, were NewsNation, Newsmax, Right Side Broadcasting Network, One America News and LindellTV.
Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, an amicus brief was filed by other news groups, including The AP, urging the court to immediately restore the three outlets’ White House access.
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